


Judgement of the Flames; A low stakes walk through the woods

by Swingdelusion



Category: Thrilling Intent (Web Series)
Genre: Are sailors classy?, Background Ashe/ Firi, Background Space Camp, Cursed Tarot, F/M, Fire, High Tides Higher Tempers, Kierer is dangerous, The Deck of Disaster
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2020-11-12
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:47:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27532495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Swingdelusion/pseuds/Swingdelusion
Summary: Markus and Inien wholesome ship story. Do you not know who either of those characters or what thrilling Intent is? Doesn't matter. I'll be happy to have people's first experience with the series be the unpopular ship I like.
Relationships: Aesling | Ashe & Inien (Thrilling Intent), Inien & Markus Velafi, Inien/Markus Velafi, Kier "Kyr" Fiyore & Markus Velafi, Markus Velafi & Kyl'il
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	Judgement of the Flames; A low stakes walk through the woods

She burst through the doors radiating heat. She was on fire. Literally.

The first to notice her temperature was the power couple of Ashe and Firi. “Woah Inien, you need some help there?” Ashe said with an oddly satisfied smirk.

“I-YES.” she stopped herself, now was not the time to pick a fight. She could already feel the floorboard burning away under her.

“Where is Kier? He should know how to reverse this.” She begged.

Charoth, the death god, gave a cute sound from the table as Ashe rubbed it. “I haven’t seen Kier around recently but, Markus is over near the bar writing one of his books. He could probably help you with your… problem.”

Inien could feel the palpable sense of satisfaction slipping off of her tongue as she finished the sentence but let it slide for now. She also put aside the giggles of genuine laughter the two shared as she went to join the Sorcelock at the bar.

He didn’t seem to notice her at first, so she cleared her throat.

“Hey Inien, you need a job done?” He didn’t look up from his scribblings.

“Markus!” She cried out exasperated.

He finally looked up. She swore he blushed for the briefest moment before he regaining his composure and pushing his work a safe distance away.

“Wow, Inien, I’ve got to say you look really pretty. Hot even.”

She couldn’t help but chuckle at the pun before returning an equally bad line.

“I did think I looked quite smoking myself.”

“If I was a mirror I'd say you looked like the firist of them all.”

The two shared a chuckle and comfortable silence before one of Inien’s legs fell through the slowly disappearing floor into the unfathomable abyss below. The action incited another bout of laughter from the druid and her girlfriend near the front door.

“Oh yeah, can you help me put out this fire? It’s making it really hard to do things.”

“I mean I can, but there’s a pool out the back. Are you sure you don’t want to just…”

“I’m sure!” she cut him off frantically.

“Sure then, I guess I can take care of that for you right now.” He snapped his fingers, understanding. “Tax goat can you get rid of this fire.”

“Baah,” it stared at him blankly before materializing an empty form on the bar.

“Oh of course.” He began to fill it out as the demon watched with empty eyes.

More of the floorboards disappeared below her. She managed to avoid falling by jumping to the right.

“Markus! I’m running out of time.”

“Sorry I just need a second to fill out this. And mark the date. And my full legal name again. Let’s see my middle name three times. Damn it that's the longest one!” This went on for a good minute before he finished filling it out and handed it to the goat.

The forms disappeared and the goat inhaled all of the fire getting rid of it. What she hadn't expected was the goat to suck away all the torches and candles in the room as well. Inien studied him carefully noticing the visible disappointment on his face for another brief second before returning to the happy go lucky smirk she was used to.

She let out a sigh of relief. “Thanks, Markus. And I’m sorry about the bar.”

They looked around the bar to take a survey of the damages. No one seemed to really panic, which in itself was a bit worrying. They were unfortunately used to this.

“No problem, this place gets broken all the time. But if you don’t mind me asking, how did that even happen?”

She frowned. “It was one of that idiot Kier’s potions.”

“Idiot really? There’s no need for name-calling. ”He gave her a disappointed frown.

Inien couldn’t help but chuckle internally at that. She knew he didn’t really care that much about it despite putting one hundred percent of himself into the act. It was the same way she didn’t care about most of the things she emoted about. It was what made him fun to taunt.

“I’m sorry that was uncalled for, but I’m just a little on edge after being set on fire and nearly falling down a hole.” She emoted with frustration.

“No, that’s understandable. Here, have this therapy imp.” He snapped his fingers and summoned a lopsided imp with a toy pipe.

“Thank you,” she said with a smile taking the cuddly Crayola creation and squeezing it tight. As she did she let out another breath finally relaxed.

“I was practicing a dangerous fire spell, so I went to your friend Kier to see if he had a potion of fire resistance or something. He gave me a free Kirer-Proof potion which he said would make me immune to fire and resistant to the much more dangerous Kierer.”

“Yeah you can never be too careful around Kierer, that stuff will burn ten times hotter than fire and twice as long. Did it end up working for you?”

She raised her eyebrow and looked down at her charred clothes as a large portion of her robes peeled off. “I suppose it did, I just expected more.”

“The spell I was practicing did explode in my face so it’s a good thing I had it but the fire just stuck to me and didn't go out.”

“Oh yeah, do you need new clothes?”

“I’ve got a pair of pants and a shirt lying around on a rock somewhere but I’ll need to find a place to order another robe and hat.”

Markus let out a sigh of grief at the loss. “I’m sorry, they were some really cool wizard robes and an awesome witch hat.”

“And they were comfy.” She echoed mournfully.

Guilt crept across Markus’ face as the hat crumpled to dust on her head.

“You know what. They’re not as good as your robe or hat but I have a few extra pairs of my wizard costume.”

Her face lit up at this and their eyes met for a sheer genuine moment, the force of which stirred something uncomfortable within her. She covered this as she usually did with a greasy smirk.

Markus put down his enormous manuscript and hopped behind the bar smashing a few glasses and falling down. He jumped back up covered in shards of glass and slowly bleeding but confident and happy.

In his hand, he had a strangely glass-free and neatly folded wizard robe which appeared identical to the one he wore all the time.

He handed it to her and turned around covering his eyes. She choked out a laugh.

“I appreciate it, Markus,” She managed to sneak out through the laughter, “but I’m not going to change in here.”

He has a small blush before playing it off. “No this is for when you do get changed.”

She raises an eyebrow with a widening grin. “Uh-huh.”  
“I’ve got a very good eyesight.”

She just smiles happily to be at this moment.

It was strange. She was always so fixated on what mattered in life that she lost sight of what made it fun. When she just let go and relaxed she could spend untold eternities in these comforting pauses they shared.

Inien handed the imp back to Markus so he could banish it back to hell.

“I’ll be right back,” she said.

She slipped behind the bar to find a strange rat-like man cackling and muttering over a deck of tarot cards.

“Would you like to draw from my DECK OF DISASTER!” He screeched.

“Nah, I need to get changed.”

“Ok then, but if you see some poor unfortunate soul down on their luck send them my way.”

“Poor unfortunate soul?” She murmured to herself looking down at her slowly disintegrating clothes.

“That would be me.”

Inside Markus returned to his writing his latest copy of High Tides, Higher Tempers with lustful delight. 

Each paragraph carried a rhythm that drew the reader in and drew their eyes away from the hidden clues on each page.

What seemed like a nonsensical sentence was often a key to an even longer mystery that spread across the book. It was unlikely anyone would unlock it on their own, but the true ending for the book was hidden behind a couple of pages of esoteric text which had to be translated in full based on clues he was hiding around the entire book. 

The problem was that he was stuck. He just couldn’t figure out the relationship between the main characters for the good ending. 

It was perplexing because despite having them lose their memories three times throughout the main story, he still couldn’t understand their feelings like he wanted to.

He couldn’t even tell if they liked each other like he wanted them to. He could always just say they did but he knew no one would buy that. 

If he had learned anything from his time writing romantic nautical dramas it was that if you wanted people to believe in a ship, they needed strong chemistry which he was struggling to convey.

They were both sailors so they should have an understanding of each other deeper than any other character, or was that the wrong thing to focus on, either way, he was frustrated.

Just then Inien returned inside carrying a deep frown in a matching wizard outfit.

“You know there's a rat-man out there giving out cursed tarot cards right?”

“Oh yeah, that’s just Rat. He’s fine as long as you don’t take any of his stuff. They’re cursed so you’ll usually end up having to deal with something annoying for a bit.”

She threw the tarot card of judgment on the table.

_“Steel your heart and mind,  
Gaze within past the great lies,  
Rebirth with old truths.”_

“Oh,” Markus echoed, “That can’t be good.”

“What does that even mean?” **She** said panic filling her voice. But her face slowly shifted to discomfort.

Markus felt the unusual discomfort in her voice and decided it was probably better to be genuine here.

“If it’s important we’ll **find** out. If not it’ll go away once we find Rat again.”

“He should just be behind the bar still right?”

“Oh no, he’ll be long gone from there. He always disappears after making a deal.”

As Inien’s face fell he decided to add a bit more to his **answer**. “He should be somewhere on the island though. I doubt he left or anything.”

“I think something’s wrong.” She said covering her mouth slightly.

“What **is** it, do you feel like you're compelled to speak in rhyme, do you feel compelled to speak all the time?”

She gave him an odd stare before continuing. “I feel like I’m saying more than I want to and it’s making me uncomfortable.”

Markus couldn’t help but smile at this.

“You pulled a tarot card which forces you to be open and honest about everything!” He couldn’t help but let out a laugh at the **irony** while she watched frustrated.

Eventually, it died down.

“I’m going now.” She said bluntly.

“I’m going with you.” He said throwing his manuscript into a satchel and stringing it over himself.

“What, why?”

“You’re my friend, you’re in trouble, and you’re cursed so it's the perfect time for some walk and talk therapy with doctor Velafi.” He materialized a mustache and bald head out of shadows.

Inien sighed, “Please don’t.”

 **In** the corner of the room, a pigbat turned her head in reaction.

He raises his eyebrows up and down very quickly. Usually, Inien was on board for whatever shenanigans he cooked up but right now she probably wasn’t entirely comfortable even saying a word around him in case she let on too much.

Eventually, she gave in. “Fine, let’s go.”

As soon as they left the building the questioning began.

“So when did you start to deflect your problems?” He asked.

She felt a painful answer escape her chest. “Probably when I was studying to be a witch. It was really intensive and took its toll so I started to deflect more serious problems as they piled up and... are you writing this down?”

“Of course,” he answered looking up from a notepad.

Inien looked around for an escape from his questioning. In the corner of her eye, she found her answer **attempting** her best to plant flowers despite her aura.

“Hey, Kyl’il have you seen Rat around anywhere!”

She gave it a moment of thought.

“I think so, but I didn’t catch where he was going. I did manage to find Kier since you were looking for him earlier.”

Markus’ eyebrows dropped in surprise at this remark and he turned to examine Inien silently but his attention was pulled away by her fiery form.

Inien probably caught a glimpse of him staring at Kyl’il but he couldn’t help himself, he had a type if nothing else and she was gorgeous.

“Perfect! Which way did he go?” Remarked Inien rather quickly. Kyl’il pointed away. “He said he was going to the amphitheater for some reason.”

“Thanks, we better get going.”

“I’ll see you soon Kyl’il my **love** ,” Markus vowed as they left.

At that, he saw a pained expression cross Inien’s face. He decided this was something he should probably leave alone, it was none of his business.

“Ok then.” She returned to her gardening unphased.

After they got out of earshot Markus finally spoke his mind.

“So let me get this straight. You found Kyl’il, and still went to the Nine Shrines Adventure and Dines Bar to find ‘Kier’?”

“You don’t have to say the full name every time. And well yeah.” Inien finished quietly.

“But Kyl’il’s made of fire. Why didn’t you just ask her?” Her mouth twitched but she seemed to keep it closed out of sheer force of will and played it off as a casual sweaty shrug.

Markus was starting to get a picture of what was going on but decided not to comment on it.

Oddly enough it was Inien who broke the silence.

“So what was that book you were writing about?”

“Oh you mean, High Tides, Higher Tempers?” The way the words fell off his tongue reminded her of Midas wine. It wasn't actually wine, but a magically altered liquid gold made for the richest nobles. They had engineered it so they could drink solid gold without any lasting harm to their bodies.

“It’s my Nautical drama epic about love on the high seas. Although admittedly I’ve been having a bit of trouble with that last part.” Inien flashed him a surprisingly genuine smile.

“Maybe I can help you out. I’ve enjoyed a trashy romance novel in my day.”

“It’s not trashy, it's classy.” 

“Markus it’s a romantic Nautical drama about, I assume sailors. Nothing with sailors is classy.”

Markus looked to the side embarrassed. “Sailors can be classy. Sailors are absolutely classy!” He turned back arguing.

“Is that the hill you’re going to die on, or do you want to actually hear criticism before you pick your gravesite?”

“Fine, but we’ll come back to this.”

“Absolutely. What’s the story about?” She asked.

“What! Were just starting right at the hard part huh?”

“Hard part?” she said confused. “Markus this should be the simplest question in the world to answer about this book. Otherwise, it won't be easy for people to recommend.”

“Well, it sort of has a branching narrative choose your own adventure feel to it.”

Inien smiled at him once more. “Alright that sounds pretty cool, what’s the general overview.”

“Well, you see…” He began genuinely excited to talk to someone about his story.

“MARKUS! IS THAT YOU!?” Far in the distance, the red man waved eagerly to them.

They both sighed in unison but despite being interrupted Markus was genuinely happy to see his friend. On the other hand, Inien did not look happy and clammed up immediately.

Kier ran over to the two with a spacesuit on.

“Hey, guys. Markus, I hope that Kierbonator helped clear up your nose, Inien did that potion I give you work?”

“You know I had doubts about the practicality of shoving a tube of fire into my nose but it really got rid of the stuffiness and helped me sleep better than I have in ages.”

“Really, I’ll have to give that a try sometime.” She commented. “Oh and well enough Kier. The fire didn’t go away as I expected.”

"Oh well, it looks like you took care of it fine."

"Hey Kier, what are you doing over here?" 

"I was helping Kulvan figure out how to set up another space camp here on the shrouded isles."

"That's pretty nice of you," Markus commented.

"Aw thanks, buddy."

“Hey Kier Inien got cursed by one of Rat’s tarot cards, you wouldn’t know how to get rid of that would you?”

Kier didn’t skip a beat. “Of Course I do.”

He pulled the big sword off of his back. “Where’s the card?”

“You know it occurs to me this might not…” Inien began to say before being promptly ignored by the overeager duo.

“Here you go.” Markus handed him her card from her pocket.

“Thanks. Ok.” He ripped the card away and tossed it on the floor.

With a big swing, he tried to cut the card to surprising effect. 

The card split in half but as it did half of a spectral scale flew from the card. Kier dodged out of the way so quickly Markus was sure he had just tripped. Inien leaned back just enough so that it flew past her until it landed in Markus.

_\--st the great lies,  
Rebirth with old truths.”_

“Huh. So wait does that mean I’m also cursed now?” Markus asked.

“Half cursed actually. We each only have to be honest fifty percent of the time now if I were to guess.” Inien remarked.

"Oh if it's only a half curse I've got a dozen or so of those already. We'll be fine." Markus remarked.

“We should still see Rat in case the curse has any weird loopholes we don’t know about.

Together they embarked on a lazy quest to see if they could find Rat with the minimum possible effort. 

“Hey, Markus? We’ve been talking for a while but I don’t think you’ve explained what the problem you were having was.”

“Oh, I’m having a problem properly writing the relationship between the character Puplu and Thyrbz.”

“Why are the names in your novels so weird?”

“It’s just how I write.” The way he dismissed it told her all she needed to know. It was probably some code or other relating to getting a ‘secret ending’ as he had put it.

“They’re both sailors and friends so they have a lot in common. Does that mean they would fight a lot or agree on everything?”

The irony of the situation was not lost on Inien as she gave him a smile and raised her eyebrow. “I think they would be friends honestly. I mean just look at you and me. We’re both mages and we’re great friends.”

“But I’m wondering if a romantic relationship changes things.

“You’ve dated people right? This shouldn't be too far out of your wheelhouse.”

Markus looked away ashamed but was forced to open his mouth.

“I may not have actually dated anyone really yet…”

She couldn’t help but let out a chuckle at this. “Didn’t you write a whole song to declare your love to everyone you knew on the island?”

“Not everyone!” He sounded offended. “Just Ashe, Thog, Kyl’il, Moren, and Dont, ...and Kulvan, ...and… you…”

“Huh, I didn’t know I was in the song. Do you remember my verse?”

“Oh yeah, but are you sure you want to hear it? I’m not sure if you’d like it and I don’t have my guitar with me so I’m not sure if it’ll have the desired effect.”

“Markus. Serenade me!” She was way too excited about this. She had never had a love song written about her.

“Oh, that witch, witch, witch, she’s such a bitch, bitch, bitch...!” Her face fell in horror as he enthusiastically strummed away at a silent shadow guitar. The next words did uplift her a lot though. “... and quite powerful!”

He sang the rest of the verse ending on the intriguing line of, “perhaps one day she’ll spend the night!”

“You know I should probably be offended, but no one has taken the time to write a song about me before. Honestly, despite using the word bitch and mean to describe me, it was really flattering.”

“Out of interest, what are the names of those characters you were struggling with code for?”

“Code? What do you mean?” He deflected.

“Those names were too weird to not be some kind of cipher. I’ve been running them over in my head and I think they’re a simple three-letter shift. What do you think? It was Puplu and Thyrbz right?”

Markus stopped in his tracks.

Inien let out a hardy chuckle. “I’m kidding. I figured it out a while ago. You’re really easy to read.” She continued walking.

“You need to learn how to be unreadable like me.” Her companion let out a hardy laugh at this proposition.

“Unreadable as your face when we met Kyl’il earlier?” He clarified sarcastically.

She joined him in laughing. “Was I really that obvious?”

“To be fair you weren’t much better earlier when I was on fire.” She countered.

She fayned a lovestruck gaze and bat her eyelashes mockingly.

“What can I say. I guess I find fiery people really attractive. Maybe it has something to do with me being a tiefling?”

“It isn't just fire Markus. I also caught you eyeing her horns. And don’t even get me started on the way you look at muscles.”

Markus let out a chuckle. “You really want to play the muscle card after those wizard drugs back at Wizard High School?”

Her face got really serious. “That wasn’t Wizard High School. It was a mage tower.”

“That is probably not true. I think I have memories of going to school there.” Argued Markus.

Inien was surprisingly happy right now. They had all but admitted their feelings for each other and they were fine. There was nothing awkward here. They were the same friends they had always been, just without any of that pesky romantic tension. 

She took a deep breath internally and decided to ask.

“Markus, could you help me practice that fire spell I was stuck on tomorrow?”

“Of course! I’d love to.” He answered without missing a beat.

Markus stopped suddenly. "I see him! He's over there!"

Inien stared at him confused. "Markus that isn't Rat it's a bush. They're two different..."

she was interrupted by Rat jumping out of the bush with manic energy. "So you saw through my disguise! You must be very clever!"

"Of course I am, but I have my good eyesight to thank for seeing through your disguise." 

Inien sighed at the inside joke before asking the obvious question.

"Can you break the curse you put on me?"

"Of course I can. But it would cost a price! Something precious to both of you.” He rubbed his hands together and cackled.

Markus chuckled at the man’s innocent and trustworthy mannerisms before turning to Inien.

“Do we have anything like that we can trade him?”

“We could trade you.” She joked.

“I’m not saying no, I trust Rat...” Rat let out a maniacal laugh in the background, “...but I think we should make sure we don’t have anything else we can trade first.” He stopped.

“I’ve got it! Rat, do you want an early draft of my latest novel?”

He roared, “It should do!”

He took the book and shoved it into his mystery sack. Next, he grabbed both of their hands.

She felt a bolt of lightning run through her arm causing unnatural spasms. Judging by Markus’s sweating he probably did as well.

After all, was said and done Rat let go of both of their hands and clapped his own together. In a single motion, he opened it up and the Judgment card revealed itself. He pocketed it and scurried away into the bushes.

“Hey Markus, are you sure you were okay giving that up.”

He waved her off. “I was going to restart it with all your feedback anyway,” he emoted.

She smiled and let out a sigh of relief.

“Thanks for the help.”

“No need.”

“See you tomorrow,” he added as she walked off with his clothes.

She nodded confidently he understood the gesture without seeing it.

She walked away radiating heat.

**Author's Note:**

> 39 16 10 26 27 35 9 6 28 23 32 19 25 18 38 15 33 36 28 29 10 34 17 28 29 17 28 35 35 25 22 32 24 16 33 10
> 
> Let's go, in and out, 20-minutes fanfiction. You'll get it finished in a single night. You don't need to eat lunch it's almost done. This is my contribution to the shipers. Also, have fun with the hidden message.


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